The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma is a captivating 2020 Netflix original documentary that dissects the dark underbelly of social media and contemporary digital culture. Its primary aim is to expose and reflect upon the myriad ways in which social media has come to manipulate, exploit, and distort our understanding of the world and inform our behaviors.

The movie features several Silicon Valley insiders and critics, including Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google, Jeff Seibert, ex-executive at Twitter and Bailey Richardson, early Instagram employee. These tech industry veterans, among others, offer viewers a unique, insider perspective on the ethical issues and unintended consequences engendered by these incredibly pervasive digital platforms.

Among its most salient players, Tristan Harris assumes a key role in the documentary, as he passionately illuminates the invasive practices many of these websites employ to keep users coming back. He draws attention to the algorithmic designs that social media platforms use, tactics that are specifically intended to feed into our psychological predispositions. According to Harris, these practices not only hook the user but also dictate their online interactions, information consumption, and even lifestyle.

On the other side of the coin, the documentary also features Jeff Seibert and Bailey Richardson from Twitter and Instagram respectively. They shed light on the development and evolution of their respective platforms, offering an honest account of the transformation and subsequent impact of these social media powerhouses. Richardson, one of Instagram's original employees, provides a unique perspective on the platform’s evolution, observing the drift from an innocent photo-sharing application to a powerful entertainment and business tool.

The Social Dilemma not only explains how social media algorithms function behind the scenes but also shows the real-world consequences of our growing dependency on them. It explores the increasing polarization and radicalization of society, the proliferation of fake news, and the amplification of extreme views, among other issues. Alongside professionals from tech industries, the documentary also brings in several academics, sociologists, and psychologists who bear out the societal impact and delve into the overarching problems and potential solutions.

The urgency and gravity of the documentary's theme are further heightened by interspersing clips of a fictional story of a typical American family. This narrative-device highlights the effects of social media on personal lives, showing the struggle of an average teenager who becomes over-dependent on social media platforms, and how these platforms permeate and alter his thinking, social interactions, and behavior.

The Social Dilemma serves up a unique blend of interviews, charts, diagrams, and animations to deep dive into the gritty workings of social media. While the format is didactic, it never becomes mundane; it keeps viewers engaged and intellectually stimulated throughout. The documentary adopts an effective two-pronged approach, concurrently educating and entertaining audiences.

Ironically, while the documentary itself is a product of digital culture, it propels a crucial message: there has been an erosion of our privacy and misinformation is affecting democracy, prompting viewers to think deeply about the way they, too, engage with these platforms.

Beyond its critique, The Social Dilemma calls for systemic changes in the way our society engages with social media. While it does instil a certain amount of fear and skepticism towards these platforms, it doesn’t call for a complete elimination of the same. Instead, it demands a radical rethinking of platform regulation and the implementation of ethical frameworks that prioritize user well-being, autonomy, and privacy over profit maximization.

The Social Dilemma's strength lies in its ability to frame the complexity of social media's systemic issues in a way that is comprehensible and engaging, while posing the necessary questions about the future of our digitally-dominated society. It underlines the need for immediate action, challenging us to reevaluate our relationship with technology in our daily lives. Bridging the gap between entertainment and education, The Social Dilemma keeps us, as viewers, both deeply concerned and piqued about the future of our digitized world.